Richard Whittall:

The Globalist's Top Ten Books in 2016: The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer

Middle East Eye: "

The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer is one of the weightiest, most revelatory, original and important books written about sport"

“The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer has helped me immensely with great information and perspective.”

Bob Bradley, former US and Egyptian national coach: "James Dorsey’s The Turbulent World of Middle Eastern Soccer (has) become a reference point for those seeking the latest information as well as looking at the broader picture."

Alon Raab in The International Journal of the History of Sport: “Dorsey’s blog is a goldmine of information.”

Play the Game: "Your expertise is clearly superior when it comes to Middle Eastern soccer."

Andrew Das, The New York Times soccer blog Goal: "No one is better at this kind of work than James Dorsey"

David Zirin, Sports Illustrated: "Essential Reading"

Change FIFA: "A fantastic new blog'

Richard Whitall of A More Splendid Life:

"James combines his intimate knowledge of the region with a great passion for soccer"

Christopher Ahl, Play the Game: "An excellent Middle East Football blog"

James Corbett, Inside World Football

Thursday, April 2, 2015

ILO victory boosts Qatari hopes of defeating efforts to deprive it of World Cup

A resolution by the International Labour Organization (ILO)
to postpone until November a decision to investigate Qatar on charges of
violating the Forced Labour and Labour Inspection Conventions is likely to
boost the Gulf state’s ability to defeat any attempt to strip it of the right
to host the 2022 World Cup at next month’s congress of world soccer body FIFA.

If the vote in the ILO’s Governing Body is any indication,
African, Asian and Latin American FIFA members like their labour counterparts
will oppose moves by Western federations to significantly increase pressure on
Qatar to reform its controversial kafala or sponsorship system that puts
workers at the mercy of their employers.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter on a visit to Qatar last month
said the Gulf state had progressed on the labour issue but needed to do more.
At the same time, FIFA, according to media reports, has taken the unusual step
of inviting Qatar to compete for qualification in the 2020 Euro tournament to
expose the Gulf’s state’s national team to high-level international competition
and give European squads a chance to meet their Qatari counterpart on the
pitch.

Outgoing FIFA executive committee member Theo Zwanziger, a
long-standing opponent of Qatar’s hosting of the World Cup, has nonetheless
warned that FIFA members could table a resolution at the group’s congress in
Zurich to deprive the Gulf state of its hosting rights if Qatar by then had not
created an independent commission to monitor its progress toward labour reform.
The oversight body was proposed in a report on labour reform by law firm DLA
Piper that was commissioned by the Qatari government.

With human rights groups and trade unions frustrated at Qatar’s
slow implementation of lofty promises of change, Qatari officials, in a
reference to the legislative process, said the Gulf state needs time to reform
if not abolish its sponsorship system. More time consuming than the legal
process is the government’s need to allay domestic concerns about the fallout
of changes to the kafala system.

Many Qatari fears that changes, which would effectively involve
granting rights to foreign migrant workers who constitute the majority of the
population, could open the door to demands for political rights that would cost
Qataris who account for only 12 percent of the population control of their
state, society and culture.

Human rights groups like Amnesty International and Human
Rights Watch have been more sensitive to Qatari concerns than trade unions who
have insisted not only on improved working and living conditions for workers in
Qatar but also on granting political rights like the right to form independent
unions and to bargain collectively.

In response to the ILO decision, International Trade Union
Confederation (ITUC) Secretary General Sharon Burrow, one of Qatar’s harshest
critics, effectively accused members of the United Nations’ labour agency of
having been bribed by Qatar.

“Qatar used its financial muscle over other governments to
buy yet more time, after years of empty promises to bring its system of slave
labour to an end. Worst of all,
governments from Asia and Africa, where most of the 1.5 million migrant workers
in Qatar come from, refused to stand up for their own people. A further six-month delay will cost scores of
lives as workers are forced to work through the incredibly hot summer months
without basic protection and at the mercy of kafala employers,” Ms. Burrow
said.

A majority of Asian, African and Latin American FIFA members
would have a variety of reasons to oppose increased pressure on Qatar ranging
from not wanting to open the door to criticism of their own labour and human
rights records to close ties that federations may have not only with Qatar but
also other Gulf states.

While Qatar may be winning rounds in international
organizations and associations, it is failing in part as a result of continued
criticism of its labour system to achieve its public diplomacy goals associated
with the World Cup. Sports is one pillar of Qatar’s soft power strategy that aims
to project the Gulf state as a cutting edge 21st century nation that
is worthy of support in the case of an emergency much like the world did in the
case of Kuwait in 1991 when it was invaded by Iraq.

As a result, activists have sought to keep the labour issue
in the public eye. French human rights group Sherpa filed a widely reported
legal case asserting that French construction giant Vinci had violated the
rights of migrant workers who were building stadiums for the 2022 World Cup.
Vinci, whose second largest shareholder is Qatar, has vigorously denied the
allegation and said it was countersuing Sherpa.

Sherpa Managing Director Laetitia Liebert was quoted by
Reuters as saying its legal claim was based on a one-week visit to Qatar in
November by one of the group’s lawyers who collected "signed"
testimonies of ten to 15 witnesses about their work conditions. In an email to
this writer, Sherpa’s legal advisor, Tamsin Malbrand, said the legal complaint
it had filed against Vinci was “strictly confidential.”

Qatar’s public diplomacy and soft power efforts are further
undermined by at times ill-conceived attempts to impress by excelling as the
biggest or the greatest. Al Sadd Sports Club, a club founded by high school
students and chaired by a member of Qatar’s ruling family, Sheikh Mohammed bin
Khalifa Al Thani, recently hoped to attract 50,000 people to participate in a
marathon that would have earned it a spot in the Guinness Book of Records as
the organizer of the largest such event. To achieve its goal, the club in a
reflection of the country’s demographic dilemma bussed in large number of most
South Asian workers who lacked the proper kit for the marathon.

“There was a large mass of labourers wearing jeans,
flip-flops and no proper running equipment. Some labourers tried to leave but
were turned back and were yelled at that they need to stay and cross the line,”
one participant told Doha News.

A club spokesman admitted that workers were bussed in but
insisted that participation in the marathon had been voluntary and that none of
the workers had been prevented from bowing out during the event.

In the end Al Sadd failed to achieve its goal. Rather than
securing a world record, it has sparked one more incident of alleged abuse of
foreign workers to bolster spectator attendance or participation in sports
events in a botched effort to enhance Qatar’s image. Similarly, an image of a
banner raised at the Cricket World Cup denouncing slavery in Qatar went viral
on the Internet.

What is true for Qatar’s clumsy efforts at public diplomacy,
could become true for the World Cup itself. Said Human Rights Watch researcher
Mustafa Qadri on a recent visit to Doha: ““Unless urgent steps are taken, when
people marvel at all the buildings and developments in 2022, (they’ll see
structures) built on the backs of a lot of misery.”

James M. Dorsey is a Senior Fellow at the S. Rajaratnam
School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University in
Singapore, co-director of the University of Würzburg’s Institute for Fan
Culture, a syndicated columnist, and the author of The Turbulent World of Middle East
Soccer blog

No comments:

Post a Comment

Sporticos

Ads

Soccer Results

The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer does not promote, link to or provide videos from any online sources who distribute illegal streaming content over the Internet with domains registered in the United States of America

Top 100 Soccer Sites

Subscribe To

Subscribe by Email

About Me

James M DorseyWelcome to The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer by James M. Dorsey, a senior fellow at Nanyang Technological University’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. Soccer in the Middle East and North Africa is played as much on as off the pitch. Stadiums are a symbol of the battle for political freedom; economic opportunity; ethnic, religious and national identity; and gender rights. Alongside the mosque, the stadium was until the Arab revolt erupted in late 2010 the only alternative public space for venting pent-up anger and frustration. It was the training ground in countries like Egypt and Tunisia where militant fans prepared for a day in which their organization and street battle experience would serve them in the showdown with autocratic rulers. Soccer has its own unique thrill – a high-stakes game of cat and mouse between militants and security forces and a struggle for a trophy grander than the FIFA World Cup: the future of a region. This blog explores the role of soccer at a time of transition from autocratic rule to a more open society. It also features James’s daily political comment on the region’s developments. Contact: incoherentblog@gmail.comView my complete profile